It's time for some good news! U.S. oil prices are once again over the $50 mark!

Before you pop the champagne, here is what you need to know to be up to speed:

  • The Wall Street Journal ("WSJ") published an article today entitled, "How a Saudi Royal Sparked an OPEC Deal and Set Oil Prices Past $50" – that's right, the bump in oil prices is attributable to the new oil production deal with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies ("OPEC")
  • The basic outline of the deal is to limit production output. Stored oil supply will be tapped into and hopefully past oversupply issues will balance out.
  • In fact, the WSJ reported that "[o]il prices have also been boosted in recent days by significant drawdowns of stored oil in the U.S."

As of the time this post was published, Brent Crude was at $52.58 per barrel and WTI Crude Oil was at $50.52 per barrel according to Bloomberg Energy. Break out the champagne flutes!!

The WSJ also reported that the "U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said U.S. crude inventories declined by 3 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 30, falling for the fifth straight week. It was another sign that demand is catching up with the oversupply of crude that caused prices to collapse in 2014."

All eyes are still on non-OPEC members (Russia) to see whether they will join in the production cuts...nonetheless, cheers to the good news!!

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